Nov. 17 (Bloomberg) -- Charles Li, who helped lead China’s
first international bond sale in New York 16 years ago, now
plans to bring the initial offerings of yuan-denominated shares
to investors outside the world’s second-biggest economy.

Li, the chief executive officer of Hong Kong Exchanges &
Clearing Ltd., has proposed allowing Chinese companies to sell
yuan-priced stock in Hong Kong, where investors are free from
the quotas imposed by Beijing on foreign ownership of mainland
equities. No shares in the currency, also known as the renminbi,
trade outside the country.

For the former oil-rig worker and editor of the government-run China Daily newspaper, the initiative would bring more
listings to his exchange from a country where 422 billion yuan
($64 billion) has been raised in initial public offerings this
year, three times as much as in the U.S., data compiled by
Bloomberg show. Li, a 49-year-old Chinese citizen, would make
Hong Kong a more important gateway as the Beijing government
takes steps to open its markets to international investors.

“Charles is pushing for the interests of both Hong Kong
and Beijing,” said Frank Song, director of the Centre for China
Financial Research at the University of Hong Kong. “China isn’t
ready to fully open its financial system. It is taking a
structured, limited approach and Hong Kong can play a very
important role in that.”

Exchange Renminbi

The world’s most populous country prohibits citizens from
sending yuan outside China, limiting funds available for an
offshore IPO to money already in circulation. Li has suggested
asking the Beijing government and People’s Bank of China to
allow financial institutions to exchange renminbi for investing
in a new class of yuan-denominated offerings in Hong Kong, he
wrote in a Sept. 21 article on the exchange’s website. Li
declined to comment.

Li has made a career modernizing China’s financial system.
After graduating from Columbia University in New York, he worked
with Manhattan law firm Brown & Wood representing China’s
Ministry of Finance on a $1 billion global bond sale in 1994.

The lead underwriter, Merrill Lynch & Co., hired Li in 1994
and appointed him China president in 1999 to oversee Hong Kong
listings. Li joined JPMorgan Chase & Co. in 2003, and was
Beijing-based China chairman before moving to Hong Kong
Exchanges in January. He spent his first day as CEO in Beijing,
according to Henry Law, an exchange spokesman.

“Having Charles Li in this position isn’t a coincidence,”
said Kenny Tang, executive director at Redford Asset Management
Ltd. in Hong Kong. “That Hong Kong Exchanges’ board appointed a
person who has such a combination of background and experience
exemplifies its goal, which is to align itself with China.”

Hong Kong Stocks

The largest publicly traded exchange operator in the world
by market value is home to Hong Kong stocks such as HSBC
Holdings Plc, the third-biggest bank, international clothier
Esprit Holdings Ltd. and Hutchison Whampoa Ltd., the
telecommunications and energy company controlled by Li Ka-Shing.
Mainland stocks accounted for 46 percent of the HK$20.64
trillion ($2.66 trillion) capitalization of Hong Kong’s Main
Board at the end of October, exchange data shows, up from 16
percent in 1997, when the U.K. returned Hong Kong to China.

Under one of Li’s proposals for allowing yuan stock sales,
investors holding renminbi could buy and sell shares directly in
Hong Kong. Those coming to the market with another currency
could trade through local brokers, who would convert the value
of the shares back into foreign currency when the investor sold.
This way, the market would retain enough yuan for shares to
trade, Li wrote in the September article.

Yuan Deposits

Li’s proposal is part of a process that began in February
2004, when yuan deposits were first allowed in Hong Kong. They
have more than doubled to $22 billion in the last six months,
the Hong Kong Monetary Authority said Oct. 29.

The People’s Bank of China and Hong Kong’s central bank
reached an agreement on July 19 removing limits on transfers of
yuan among banks in the city. Regulators agreed Hong Kong would
have no restrictions on yuan deposit holders using renminbi to
buy wealth management products, an action aimed at developing a
market for the currency in Hong Kong, HKMA Chief Executive
Norman Chan said.

Chinese companies now issue renminbi-denominated bonds in
Hong Kong. The value of all transactions settled in the currency
rose 160 percent during the third quarter, the PBOC said on Nov.
2. Espoo, Finland-based mobile-phone maker Nokia Oyj, retailer
Metro AG in Duesseldorf, Germany, and McDonald’s Corp. in Oak
Brook, Illinois, the biggest restaurant chain, were among
companies that settled $19 billion in yuan during the period.

Dollar Reliance

China is promoting greater use of the yuan to reduce
reliance on the U.S. dollar after Premier Wen Jiabao said in
March he is concerned about holding too many assets in the
American currency. The country had $2.65 trillion in foreign
reserves, almost 34 percent of the world’s total, at the end of
September. The yuan accounted for 0.3 percent of global foreign
exchange transactions in April, according to the Bank for
International Settlements.

China has allowed the yuan to trade in a band set daily
against the dollar and other major currencies since July 19. It
rose to 6.6239 per dollar on Nov. 12, the highest level since an
official peg to the U.S. currency ended in 2005.

Liberalization of yuan settlement through Hong Kong could
cause up to 50 percent of China’s trade with emerging nations to
be carried out in renminbi within five years, HSBC analysts led
by Hongbin Qu, the chief China economist, said in a note Nov. 9.
That would result in $2 trillion of yuan trade annually, making
renminbi among the world’s three most-used currencies for buying
and selling goods and services, the analysts said.

‘Proportional Say’

“As the world’s second-largest economy, China does not
have proportional say and influence in international economics
and finance,” Li wrote in the September article. “This is the
result of a currency that lacks international standing. Every
move towards making the renminbi an international reserve
currency results in a greater say for China in the geopolitical
arena.”

Concern that investments from outside the country will
inflate asset bubbles spurred China to mandate boosting minimum
holdings of foreign currency among banks and toughening their
audits of overseas fundraising, the central bank said Nov. 10.

Convincing authorities in Beijing to approve the IPO plan
may not be possible, said David Webb, a former director of the
Hong Kong exchange, in an interview from the city.

“Li is the driving force behind the proposal,” said Webb,
who said investors won’t risk money in a program that might be
suspended by China’s government. “It’s premature to be trying
so hard to push this water uphill,” he said. “You have to ask
him why he’s so keen on it.”

Investor Interest

Mark Konyn, who helps manage more than $12 billion as chief
executive officer of RCM Asia Pacific in Hong Kong, said the
plan may be crippled if too few investors take part.

“The worry is that there isn’t enough flow,” Konyn said.
“If things don’t happen in the right sequence, there could
potentially be a shortage of currency.”

Hong Kong’s central bank may strike a deal with the PBOC to
guarantee a supply of funds, said Francis Cheung, who oversees
China strategy at CLSA Ltd. That could be achieved by borrowing
yuan and using Hong Kong dollars as collateral. The authority
has been granted a license to invest in yuan stocks and bonds,
China’s Securities Regulatory Commission said on its website.

Money Flows

“The whole idea is to get renminbi circulating, not just
sitting there doing nothing,” Cheung said in an interview from
Hong Kong. “Yuan IPOs are something that has to get done. The
reason is that yuan deposits in Hong Kong have been piling up
very rapidly. If they don’t create yuan products, then money is
going to start going to other places, such as the property
market.”

Li’s career has run parallel to China’s opening. After
spending his childhood in the northwest Gansu province, he left
home at 16, crossing the country to work on an oil rig in Bohai
Gulf and learning English in a company program.

He worked as a reporter and editor for the government-run
China Daily newspaper for two years starting in 1984 before
getting a journalism scholarship at the University of Alabama in
Tuscaloosa. Later he received a law degree from Columbia.

Li was the primary lawyer for Beijing’s Finance Ministry
during the China government’s $1 billion debt sale in February
1994. While Chinese officials and Merrill Lynch called the
offering a success, the 6 1/2 percent notes, priced at $994.06
per $1,000, cost about $850 by year-end and yielded 116 basis
points, or 1.16 percentage points, more than Treasuries, from 85
when sold.

QDII Program

The sale represented a step in China opening up to global
investors, a program that continues today. The government is
increasing the number of fund managers, brokerages and banks
allowed to invest money offshore under the qualified domestic
institutional investor, or QDII, program.

Regulators had approved a combined $66.9 billion in QDII
funds as of Sept. 30, according to the State Administration of
Foreign Exchange. That compares with $19 billion approved under
the qualified foreign institutional investor, or QFII, program
that gives non-Chinese firms access to the country’s securities
markets.

Hong Kong Exchanges has hosted a record HK$373.4 billion in
initial public offerings of stock this year, including its first
listings by Russian and French firms, according to data compiled
by Bloomberg. About 44 percent of money raised was from IPOs of
Chinese companies, according to the exchange.

The bourse reported third-quarter net income declined 0.5
percent to HK$1.22 billion on Nov. 10 as trading volume fell.
Profit for the nine months through Sept. 30 rose 2 percent. Li
says allowing companies to raise funds in yuan on his exchange
will help maintain the flow of business from China.

“Connecting with the mainland isn’t easy,” said Danny
Yan, Hong Kong-based money manager at Taifook Asset Management
in Hong Kong, which oversees about $400 million. “Charles is a
mainlander who’s got international experience and very good
relations with Beijing. The exchange needs such a person.”